Writers use paragraphs to organize ideas and information so that a reader can easily understand what is written. A reader is better able to navigate a writer’s ideas when related sentences are grouped into paragraphs.

Think about how a grocery store groups products. You would be lost trying to find anything without organization. To help you navigate, the store is broken down into smaller sections, and its products are organized by type. The aisles and sections are then labeled to help you find the specific items you need.

How writers organize their ideas is similar. Ideas about a topic are grouped together in smaller sections — paragraphs — and each paragraph has both a topic sentence that “labels” its main idea and specific details to support and develop that idea. In this lesson, you will learn how to write such a paragraph.